Page 1 of 2 India unmoved by
flying Tigers By Sudha
Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Even though some
of India's vital defense and nuclear installations
are within range of the nascent "air force" of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri
Lanka, New Delhi refuses to supply lethal military
equipment to help Colombo. Two fixed-wing
aircraft carried out an air raid on Katunayake
military air base near Sri Lanka's main city and
commercial capital Colombo last Monday. The
physical damage to the
Lankan
air base was not serious and fighter jets in
hangars on the base were not hit.
However,
that the Tiger aircraft were able to come right up
to Colombo, bomb one of Sri Lanka's most tightly
guarded installations and go back unchallenged has
rattled the government. It has exposed the big
gaps in Colombo's security. "The possibility of an
aerial attack on the residences or offices of the
country's top leaders, other government
installations, the World Trade Center in Colombo
or ships carrying troops cannot be ruled out," an
official in Sri Lanka's Defense Ministry told Asia
Times Online.
It is not just Colombo that
needs to be worried. Air capability in the hands
of one of the world's most deadly rebel groups, a
group that has an extensive international network
that includes ties with other militant outfits, is
cause for concern. Soon after the attack, Sri
Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse pointed out
that the "LTTE's air-strike capability would
become a threat to the international community".
Although the LTTE has denied that its air
capability poses a threat to anyone outside Sri
Lanka, India, which is separated from the island
nation by a narrow stretch of water, is uneasy.
The attack on Katunayake involved some 400
kilometers of flying distance. "This means that at
least three states in south India [Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka and Kerala] could be reached by the LTTE
aircraft," a coast guard official based at Chennai
told Asia Times Online. Several vital defense and
nuclear installations are in these states.
There has been a significant slide in the
security situation in southern India over the past
year. Since the eruption of a new round of
fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the
LTTE, tens of thousands of Tamil refugees from the
island's strife-torn north and east have streamed
into Tamil Nadu.
In recent months, several
large consignments of arms and ammunition meant
for the LTTE have been recovered in various parts
of Tamil Nadu. A boat lined with hundreds of
kilograms of explosive and carrying a suicide bomb
vest, detonators grenades and chemicals, which is
believed to have been heading for Sri Lanka on a
suicide mission, was intercepted by the Indian
Coast Guard recently. And now there has been this
aerial attack by the LTTE.
Indian
analysts, however, rule out an immediate threat to
India from the LTTE's air capability. The threat
to India, they say, is more in the medium and long
terms. According to B Raman, a former director of
the Indian Research and Analysis Wing's
counter-terrorism unit, there is the "likelihood
of copycat terrorism". Indian rebel groups such as
the Maoists, who have territorial control over
parts of rural India, "might be tempted to emulate
the LTTE", he has said. The LTTE is known to have
links with the Maoists in India.
Indian
Air Force (IAF) officers insist they are not
overly worried about the LTTE's aircraft as India
has a credible radar network comprising military
and civilian systems. However, they point out that
the country's radar systems are concentrated on
surveillance along the border with Pakistan. They
are now calling for better surveillance of the
south coast.
Although India does not
perceive an immediate threat from LTTE aircraft,
it is not taking chances. It swung into action
within hours of the attack on Katunayake air base.
Eight mobile radar units were installed in
Sundaramudaiyan village near Rameswaram in Tamil
Nadu, as it is closest to northern Sri Lanka, most
of which is under LTTE control.
Arrangements are in place to shoot down
any enemy aircraft that violates Indian airspace,
say IAF officials, adding that Rameswaram could
become a permanent air base. Surveillance by the
Indian Navy and Coast Guard of the waters off the
Tamil Nadu coast has also been stepped up.
Colombo, meanwhile, is anxious over how
far India will go to provide it with security
against the LTTE's air capability. In December
2005, India gifted Sri Lanka with two indigenously
developed Indra-II radars. Soon after the attack
on Katunayake, sections in Sri Lanka blamed the
radar for the attack. A report in the
government-owned English daily The Island said the
radar was defective and had failed to detect the
LTTE aircraft. The Lankan government subsequently
denied the report. It has emerged since
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